Just Plain Stubborn
by RoseScor90
Summary: What will it take for two very adamant and stubborn friends to realise they love each other? DO R&R!


Disclaimer: Not JK…

A/n: Written for the next gen competition, the character was Hugo Weasley. The song that inspired this fic was _One Week._

My first time writing Hugo, so if there's something you could tell me to improve, please do! 

Hope you enjoy!

Their relationship could be described as complex at best. They hurt each other, clawed at the other like raging lions. They were always there for the other when trouble came. They were each other's first and best friend. And they were ignoring each other now.

It had come as rather a shock to the entire school when Hugo Weasley and Ashley Dale had stopped talking to each other. They never even sat beside each other anymore, they were never seen in each other's company when they had been inseparable before.

The Heads commonroom was deserted as the two had begun hiding in their dorms to escape a confrontation. The hearth was cold and lifeless, the books lay in their respective places in the shelves and Ashley's light humming as she worked was missing from the room, making it look like a cemetery than a commonroom where people lived.

For the first time in a week, Hugo ventured from his dorm room and looked around cautiously. No sign of her. Heaving a relieved sigh, he carefully walked down the stairs and towards the portrait hole. He was almost out of it when a door opened and he turned around instinctually. Hugo bit his tongue when he saw Ashley's frazzled form on top of it. She seemed as surprised at seeing him as he was, and quickly retreated back without even a smile to acknowledge his presence. That told him that the status quo was standing; that irritated the hell out of him.

XXXXXXXX

Ashley plopped down on her bed, not caring that she was probably lying on her recently laundered uniform. She felt like crying, now. Worse, she felt like going back to him and apologizing; it terrified her. All through their seven years here, it had always been Hugo's task to make peace between the two of them. Sure they fought like cats and dogs, but Hugo never stayed away from her like this; he never avoided her purposefully. It just wasn't a Hugo thing, at all.

And this time, it wasn't all her fault either, and that annoyed her more than anything else. When it had been her fault, he had been understanding and accepting and the moment it was his fault, he bolted. How fair was that?

Ashley shook her head to clear her muddled thoughts as she remembered that day, almost a week ago now, when they had had a fight…their worst yet, and for no reason at all, now that she thought about it. Or maybe it _was_ as simple as jealousy and she was willing to accept it…

XXXXXXXX

"You're out of it, Hugo!" His date's screeching voice brought him from dreamland and Hugo shook his head to clear the ringing in them. Man, this woman could scream.

Hugo merely shrugged as he began walking away from her. In a few minutes, he could hear the click of her heels follow; as if he hadn't known she would come behind him. There was only one person in the entire world who could, and would, make him go after her. And that person was history, as far as his life was concerned.

"Is it Dale?" _Or maybe just a rancid memory_, he corrected himself as he stopped.

"It is her, isn't it? You're always thinking about her, I can tell. Your eyes always stare at her whenever she's in a room, you follow her around like a puppy, you're in bloody love with her!" The girl screeches brought Hugo's patience to the edge of the cliff but her last words simply threw it off without the parachute.

"Will you shut up!" Hugo walked away from the shell shocked girl, not even bothering to apologise to her, he was in the mood for tearing things up, not mending them.

Changing directions, Hugo walked towards the Hufflepuff commonroom and the one person he went to when in doubt; Darius Malfoy.

"Girl troubles again, Hugo?" Lucy asked uncharacteristically as she scribbled in her parchment. She went back to work as Darius lifted his head from his own homework to look at him. The frustrated look in Hugo's eyes and the way he kept running his hand through his hair told Darius all that he needed to know. It wasn't girl trouble, it was _Ashley_ trouble, and that made it worse.

"It's just we had a fight and I dunno how to apologise." Hugo cut to the chase as he plopped down beside his cousin who didn't bother looking up at him while she replied.

"You seemed to have no trouble the last times."

"Yeah, well, it's different."

"Different as in?" It was Darius who asked this time, as Lucy seemed to have tuned him out.

"Well, it was my fault for a bit this time, and…I…I might have told her that I didn't like her."

"Just apologise like you always do. I'm sure she's as miserable as you are now. Merlin knows the two of you need each other."

"We don't…"

"You wanted my suggestion, Hugh. You have it."

"Fine then. I'm leaving." Lucy merely waved to him as he stormed back to his dorm, his mood spoiled; not that there was anything there for it to be spoiled anyway.

"You were rude, Dari." Darius shrugged, looking into Lucy's clear blue eyes, unperturbed, as he answered.

"Someone needed to push him. What else do I have the name Malfoy for?" Shaking her head, Lucy went back to her work. Darius smiled, he knew his plan would work.

_On the other side of the castle…_

"Love!" Hugo yelled at the mermaid and she glared at him once before she let him in with a warning, "You're in for a surprise."

Inside was a sight he was unprepared for. The commonroom was upturned and destroyed; it was the impeccable state of the bookshelves that told Hugo that it was Ashley's work. The rest of the commonroom was in the state of disarray; Hugo knew the elves were going to break their backs cleaning it. But of course, Ashley wouldn't let them; he forgot, he was the Slytherin, not her. Looking around, Hugo found a gaping hole in the window; she must have been pretty angry to throw things. He walked up the steps to the dorms, intent on finding out what had happened. All thoughts of staying away from her seemed to have escaped his mind as he entered the dorms.

Instead of a raging Ashley, he found a sheepish Lily in there, sitting on the bed, "Lils?" Lily jerked up from the bed but seeing that it was him, she sat back leisurely.

"What're you doing here? Where's…"

"Ash? She went running out a while back, screaming at me not to follow her. I'm waiting here so I can apologise for whatever wrong I seem to have done."

"What did you do?"

"Nothing. I just came to invite her for a sleepover and she kind of blew up on me. I have no idea why." Lily's eyes were shining with unshed tears, and Hugo hugged her to his chest.

"It wasn't you she was yelling at, Lils. She was taking it out on you because you're my cousin and she's pissed with me."

"I knew something happened between the two of you!"

"And you'll never know what it was. Now, could you help right this place? And the commonroom? Then I might go and try to persuade her to come down from the stars." Hugo tried to joke, and lily laughed. It was just too easy to make Lily smile; she was perpetually happy and anything a person said only added to it.

"No, I'll take care of it. You go on ahead and bring her out of her misery." Lily pushed him out, and before he could disappear completely, called him back.

"What?"

"Just one advice, Hugh. Just snog her already." With that, she closed the door on him, making him feel foolish. What was with everyone assuming they liked each other, like that? And what would Lily say if she knew that he had already gone and taken her _advice_?

Hugo denied even the possibility to himself, though the events of the past week ran in his mind as he walked to the place where he knew she would be; it had been their personal haunt afterall.

XXXXXXXX

"_What're you writing?" Hugo tried to look over her shoulder as she wrote furiously in a notebook._

"_A Private journal, Hugo. Stay away from it." She snapped the book shut as he tried to peek, giving him a warning glare._

"_Why? Afraid I'd know all your deep, dark secrets?" He asked, his eyes glinting mischievously, an expression she knew all too well._

"_You already know all of those deep dark secrets, Hugh. Now stay away from it, alright? I'll be back in a bit." Ashley was feeling oh so happy that day. It was their fifteenth anniversary. She couldn't believe she had met him just fifteen years before, it always seemed like they had been friends for a life time. Of course, as was customary, Hugo would have forgotten and would scramble when she told him. Chuckling to herself, Ashley took out her present for him, a collage containing pictures of them from their childhood._

_When she entered the commonroom, she wasn't too shocked to find that Hugo was reading her diary; it wasn't in him to respect her personal space, she hadn't expected him to._

"_Who's this guy you keep obsessing over?" Was the first thing he asked as Ashley came towards the couch. No apology, no regret, not even the hint of embarrassment; completely Hugo-ish._

"_It's no-one. Just my dream guy and stuff." She replied non-chalantly. He had no need to know her dream guy had recently taken the face of her life long friend._

"_You have dream guys?" Hugo's voice was incredulous, as if he could believe her; which, looking at his face, Ashley knew he couldn't._

"_There's a reason you shouldn't read girl's diaries, Hugh. You're bound to come across unpleasant surprises."_

"_It's Justin, isn't it? That Thomas guy?"_

"_What? Don't be ridiculous, Hugh! I haven't spoken with that guy, like ever!"_

"_Maybe that's why! You have a crush on him!"_

"_I do not, Hugo and even if I did, I see no reason why you're so interested!"_

"_I'm supposed to care! I'm your friend!" That stung; so she had been dreaming, she had been holding onto a dream, hadn't she? Time to wake up, darling._

"_Well, you don't find me commenting on the brainlessness of your dates, do you Hugo?" Her tone was scathing, making him reel back._

"_Just because I get dates left and right…"_

"_Better be alone than in bad company, Hugo?"_

"_You're just jealous!"_

"_Of what? Of the lack of grey cells in your dates? Or of the way you hold yourself like a bloody Casanova? Of what, pray tell me!"_

"_That I'd never even think of dating someone like you." The words were out before he could stop them, and in a lightning flash, her wand was at his throat, her eyes menacing._

"_And what, does someone like me mean?" Her left eyebrow was raised in question, the only indication that she was giving him any chance at all to retaliate, argue. Her wand pricked his neck, her eyes blazed at him, her jaw set stubbornly. He did the only thing he could to get out of the predicament, as he saw it; he kissed her._

_He really hadn't meant to; as he'd justify later. He was just looking for a way out of the corner and the idea had just happened to him; of course he hadn't been dreaming of kissing her, what did you take him for? But she, she was making it entirely too difficult for him to believe that. _

_Her eyes shone like corals as she looked at him with those amber eyes, expectant. She atleast wasn't raging murderously anymore, Hugo noted with satisfaction._

"_I…I'm sorry, Ash. I was just…"_

"_Trying to manipulate me, I know."_

"_You know? Then…then you know there's nothing…that there could be nothing between…"_

"_Yes, yes I do, Hugo."_

"_Ah, okay then. I…I should be going." He scurried out of the room, curiously feeling like a coward._

And that, Hugo thought, had been that. But he hadn't been able to get that one incident out of his head and had begun avoiding her unconsciously. It was only when Darius had asked him that he had seen that he had indeed been avoiding her. But she seemed too content to follow in his steps, so maybe, just maybe, she felt the same embarrassment too.

He was almost to the roof now, climbing up the stairs of the Astronomy Tower. She always sat on the roof, a precarious place to be sure, to sulk.

"Hey there, Sulky!" He sat beside her, watching the sunset in front of them. The sight was beautiful, to be sure, but Hugo wasn't in the mood for enjoying nature now.

"What do you want?"

"Oh nothing. Can't I walk around the castle now? Private property, is it?"

"Don't try messing with me, Hugo. I'm not in the mood for fooling around."

"Well, what else are you in the mood for?"

"Pulling out your hair and pushing you off this tower." She replied curtly, and Hugo took a cautious step back. You never knew when she was serious and when she was kidding.

"Ouch! What's put you in this mood?"

"I don't know, but it certainly isn't the fact that I'm having a crappy week so far, surely not the fact that it's been a week since my best friend _kissed_ me and ran off, and most definitely not the fact that said friend's been avoiding me for a week straight!" Now he knew how the commonroom had come to resemble a dragon's nest.

"Calm down! Calm down! I wasn't ignoring you, Ash! I was just…occupied."

"Yeah, and you expect me to believe your stupid excuse?" She shifted to him, and the setting sun caught something shiny on her lap.

"What's that?" He plucked it away from her before she could retort and browsed through the pages.

"It's ah…a kind of present I made for you for our, you know…anniversary. You remember, the one you keep forgetting?" He was silent, looking through the various pictures of them. Them in his room, them in her house sitting on swings, them in their first ever Hogwarts robes, them at Diagon Alley with ice-cream smears on their faces, them at various locations at Hogwarts…The last picture caught his eyes.

It had been taken here, on top of the roof with just them, sitting casually. He had his arms slung around her shoulders and she was leaning on him, her blond hair flying in the wind that was blowing. She seemed unaware of it, as she smiled contently at the camera. It was an everyday picture, but that was what threw him.

It was so casual, the closeness between them; maybe that was why they both had trouble accepting it was anything of the ordinary. Because it wasn't; they were a unit, a single person. And nothing and no-one could change that. Not petty fights, not giggly girlfriends, not unconfirmed crushes, and certainly not jealousy.

"That was in our fifth year, after OWLs. We were so relaxed, after all the stress. We even coerced Darius to take a picture of us here." He could sense the smile in her voice as she recalled the memory. Hugo smiled, she was always savoring the past; the memories.

"Darius made some wisecrack about us looking good together on film."

"I think he was right." The words slipped out of his mouth naturally, like he had been waiting to say it all his life.

"Don't be silly, Hugo. He was just kidding."

"I'm not, Ash. I'm serious about this. We'd be good together."

"That sounds so wooden, Hugo. You can't just convince yourself like that, with logic…"

"It's not logic, it's the truth, Ash."

"Simply because we look good in a roll of film?"

"Because I can't seem to concentrate on anything else when you aren't arguing with me; because I can't stop myself from comparing every girl I see with you and think how you're better than them in some way; because it irritates me when everyone wants us to get together and I can't because we decided to never be cliché and fall for each other, because not speaking with you, not hearing you declare my moods like a weather report, not listening to you mock me, not sparring with you, not being able to say that I love you, even if it was in my mind, is driving me crazy!"

He felt rather than saw Ashley walk away from him, to the other side of the roof. He knew she wouldn't fall; she had been the one who had charmed the roof to hold. A light breeze blew; he realized he was sweating only when he felt the relief the wind gave; he was nervous. Of course he was, this could get disastrous. Him and his big mouth couldn't remain shut could it?

"Ash…"

"Shh…don't, Hugo. I'm having a damned epiphany here." Her voice was so stumped, so disbelieving, so frustrated that he laughed.

"What about?" He stood and walked to where she was standing, the wind once again playing havoc with her hair. Had she always looked like a runaway angel?

"What you said. I took all my anger out on Lily, for no reason at all. I…I've been a mess the past week, Hugo. I wished so badly that things could go back to what they were, before, you know…you have no idea how many times I've decided to just up and confront you. But I didn't have the courage. I wanted to remain in my bubble of comfort where I didn't know if you loved me the way I loved you; where I never took the chance. Some Gryffindor I am, right?" She laughed wryly, looking anywhere but at him. Hugo lifted a hand to her chin, lifting her face to look into her eyes.

"You were brave enough to say all this, Ash. Not many people face confrontation well. Take me, for example," He placed a finger over her lips to stop her protests.

"I could have just faced you rather than run away, but that was what I did, wasn't it?"

"You were running away from cliché, that isn't bad; it's normal."

"And look where it ended, dead center of the world's biggest cliché." Laughter bubbled out of her now, hearing his mock exasperation.

"People are going to get a kick out of giving us I told you so speeches." Hugo looked genuinely alarmed by the prospect.

"Lily, surely. Darius will only give me looks, so I can ignore them. Lucy, no-one ever knows quite what she'll do." Hugo ticked his fingers off while Ashley added.

"You're leaving the rest of the school, and the rest of your family." Knowing the Weasleys as well as she did, there was no doubt in her mind that she'd receive one too many knowing looks and smirks.

"And the second is larger than the first, scarily." Hugo shook his head in resignation as they walked back to the commonroom.

"The commonroom!" Ashley exclaimed after a while eliciting a chuckle from Hugo.

"Realised now, did you? Lily promised she'd take care of it, though."

"Lily! Oh Merlin, I messed up so bad with her. I feel so ashamed! I mean, I like, blew up on her, poor thing! I should apologise to her, I must have hurt her."

"We've hurt too many people because they told us the truth," At Ashley's raised eyebrow, he explained, "Darius." Ashley nodded understandingly.

"And just because we didn't like hearing it from them."

"We had to figure it out ourselves, yeah?"

"That's what we'd claim." Ashley agreed with a twinkle in her eyes before she closed the gap between them. She could finally, finally, do this without qualms, doubts, without people giving her knowing looks.

A/n: Do review!


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